U.S. CORRECTIONS SYSTEM OVERLOADED

Researchers Find That Numbers Have More Than Doubled Since 1982, With
Black Males More Likely To Go To Jail

WASHINGTON -- One in every 31 U.S. adults is in the corrections
system, which includes jail, prison, probation and supervision, more
than double the rate of a quarter century ago, according to a new report.

The Pew Center on the States study, which said the current rate
compares to one in 77 in 1982, concluded that with declining
resources, more emphasis should be put on community supervision, not
jail or prison.

"Violent and career criminals need to be locked up, and for a long
time. But our research shows that prisons are housing too many people
who can be managed safely and held accountable in the community at far
lower cost," said Adam Gelb, director of the centre's Public Safety
Performance Project, which produced the report.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate and the biggest
prison population of any country in the world, according to figures
from the U.S. Department of Justice. Most of those in the U.S.
corrections system -- one in 45 -- are already on probation or parole,
with one in 100 in prison or jail, the Pew study found.

Those numbers are higher in certain areas of the country, and Georgia
tops all states with one in 13 adults in the justice system. The other
leading states are Idaho, where one in 18 are in corrections and
Texas, where the rate is one in 22. In the nation's capital,
Washington, D.C., nearly five per cent of adults are in the city's
penal system.

This was the first criminal justice study that took into account those
on probation and parole as well as federal convicts, Pew said.

The numbers are also concentrated among groups, with a little more
than nine per cent of black adults in prisons or jails or on probation
or parole, as opposed to some four per cent of Hispanics and two per
cent of whites. Pew compiled the report as states consider cutting
corrections spending during the recession.

The research group said that by changing sentencing laws and probation
programs states can lower incarceration rates and save money.

"Among the many programs that are competing for scarce taxpayer
dollars, there is one area of the state budget that could use some
trimming, and that area is corrections," said Susan Urahn, the
center's managing director, in a call with reporters.

"The bottom line is that states are spending too much."

Penitentiary systems have been the fastest-growing spending area for
states after Medicaid, the health care program for those with low
income. Over the last 20 years their spending on criminal justice has
increased more than 300 per cent, the study found.

During the last 25 years prison and jail populations have grown 274
per cent to 2.3 million in 2008, according to the Pew research, while
those under supervision grew 226 per cent over the same span to 5.1
million. It estimated states spent a record $51.7 billion on
corrections in fiscal year 2008 and incarcerating one inmate cost
them, on average, $29,000 a year.

But the average annual cost of managing an offender through probation
was $1,250 and through parole $2,750.

"The huge differences between states are mostly due not to crime
trends, or social and economic forces," Gelb said. "The rates are
different mostly because of choices that the states have made about
how they respond to crime."